July 8, 2026
Here’s the honest origin story. I just wanted to host cocktail parties. I texted Liz Grove: two hours, second floor of Pine Grove Hall, good drinks, good people, nothing fancier than that. I wanted a space where people in Happy Valley could show up, relax, and actually talk to each other, no agenda required.
Then an opportunity came along to run design-thinking sessions, and the two ideas started talking to each other in my head. A cocktail party is already a place where people open up a little. What if it also gave them room to think through the stuff that makes life feel stuck, energy, routines, relationships, and walk away with one tiny thing to try differently? Somewhere in that overlap, the name found us: Stirred, Not Stuck. A nod to the drink in your hand, and to the idea that you don’t need to overhaul your whole life, just stir things up a little.
So in January, we started with workshops instead of parties. Over the past year we’ve run sessions like “Jump Start 2026,” “Energy on Tap,” and “Tiny Habits, Real Life.” People mapped out their days, their habits, their energy. They brainstormed new ideas, noticed what was quietly working against them, and challenged the answers they thought they already knew. Everyone left with one or two very small experiments to try that week. Nothing dramatic, nothing pinned to a vision board. If it worked, great. If it didn’t, that was just information, not failure.
Somewhere in those rooms, we noticed something else: people wanted more than a facilitator’s ideas. They wanted to hear from each other. So we started collecting what we now call Happy Valley Hacks, little real-life tips from people who actually live here. A good summer walking loop. The best-kept-secret ice cream stop. A tiny tweak that makes a Tuesday less stressful. Every time we shared them out loud, the room got louder and more people wanted to add their own.
But if we’re being honest about the biggest thing we learned, it wasn’t about habits or hacks at all. It was that people just wanted to be in a room together. In every session, the moments people lit up about were the human ones, meeting someone new, swapping a story, realizing they weren’t the only one still figuring it out. So we’re circling back to where this whole thing started, minus the overthinking.
We’re bringing back the cocktail party. Or, well, the Social. Second floor, Pine Grove Hall, two hours, name tags, a couple of easy icebreakers so nobody’s stuck awkwardly by the wall, and plenty of open time to just talk. For anyone who wants a little more intention, there will be some gentle prompts and stickies on the walls. Totally optional, never required.
Come to hang out. Come to swap a hack that’s working for you. Come to figure out one small thing worth trying. All of it counts.
Join us next week
Wednesday, July 15, 6-8 p.m. Second floor of Pine Grove Hall, two hours, a relaxed start and a clear end. You don’t need a reason to come. Meet someone new, talk, have fun, that’s it. That’s the whole invitation. I hope to see you there!
Melissa Hicks is a learning designer, facilitator, and consultant who helps people and organizations get “unstuck” through small experiments, reflective conversations, and design thinking–inspired practices. When she’s not working with faculty or community groups around Happy Valley, you can sometimes find her singing at the piano bar at the American Ale House, doing morning workouts with her basset and feral cats, or listening to just one more podcast.
